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PAUL:

When you get invited back to one of the world's biggest stages, you bring your A-list friends. Mississippi is returning to the Rose Parade, and this year Kermit the Frog is along for the ride. Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front-row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places, and events that make the City With Soul shine. On today's show, we're talking about Mississippi's return to the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day.

Last year's debut was a landmark moment. 800,000 people on the streets of Pasadena, millions more watching worldwide. This year, Mississippi goes back with a new theme celebrating the arts and Jackson's own USA International Ballet Competition will be represented on the float. I'm talking with Rochelle Hicks and Katie Coats from Visit Mississippi, plus Mona Nicholas from the USAIBC about what it takes to tell our state story on one of the biggest stages in the world.

It was 2024 and Rochelle Hicks came up with the idea for Mississippi's Rose Parade float while doing what millions of Americans do each January 1st, watching the parade at home with her family. She saw other states represented and thought, well, what if Mississippi could be there too? But going from inspiration on the couch to actually standing on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, well, that's a different experience entirely.

So when I asked Rochelle what that moment was like when she first saw the Mississippi float come down the parade route.

ROCHELLE:

…really hard to put into words because it's just so larger than life. You know, like all of us, I've grown up watching the Rose Parade and you know, as you see it on TV, yes, it's gorgeous and it just looks beautiful, but you really can't put it into words until you see it. I mean, it's, huge. mean, you know, it's the size of it is just overwhelming. And then like to see all these different components of a float that represent our state that we all love so much. It was humbling, it was exciting, it was all the emotions at one time because it was a great moment. I would say it was definitely a career highlight for me. Bucket list for sure.

PAUL:

Katie Coats worked closely with the California volunteers and float makers who brought Mississippi story to life. Hundreds of volunteers spend days decorating these floats, covering every surface with natural materials like petals and seeds and bark and leaves. And while they're working, they're learning about the places the floats represent. So I asked Katie about the interactions that stuck with her and what surprised her most about people outside Mississippi and how they responded to our musical heritage.

KATIE:

I think I was just surprised in general by how many wonderful interactions we had with the people who take time out of their holiday season to decorate the float with their families or people who come to tour the warehouse, the people who pay to go see the floats up close at float fest afterwards. Like I was just kind of thinking the whole time leading up to our main goal is, know, get this float on TV and that's going to make such an impact, which it did, but all of the kind of supplemental excitement around it and interactions we had just were the cherry on top to say the least.

PAUL:

Of course, the float itself was just part of the story coordinating the Sonic Boom of the South from JSU, Chapel Heart and Brandon Bennett for a live broadcast with millions watching; that had to be intense. I asked them to take us behind the curtain and share what those rehearsals and Parade Day moments were really like.

KATIE:

We get to stand in the grandstands and watch the float come down and have good seats. And we had all these people around us who've come to the parade for years and years. And so as The Boom came down and they had their time, they introduced them and were right by the media. They just gave the best performance ever. If anyone's seen the recording, you know, but imagine being there. I mean, it was larger than life and awesome. And so we were cheering and cheering and we sat back down and the people behind us didn't know we were from Mississippi. I think they might've figured it out by how loud we were cheering, but I didn't know for sure. And I overheard them saying that this was just the best band that they'd ever seen. They've been coming for years and years and they couldn't believe it. And so just to even overhear that was really special. It's a sweet memory.

PAUL:

Rochelle shared what it was like working with Chapel Heart and Brandon Bennett.

ROCHELLE:

They actually came to Mississippi and pre-recorded their songs for the float. So the way that it works with the Rose Parade is they actually have the artists pre-record. They are singing live, but in case there are some technical difficulties, they want to have a pre-recorded version as well. We got to meet them, you know, ahead of time and really have this great interaction with them here in Mississippi and getting their pre-recorded role for the show. But then, you know, on site, they were so full of excitement as well. I mean, this is a great opportunity for these artists as well to be performing on a national stage in front of tens of millions of people. It was just a great experience working with those guys and they were just so gracious and and kind and willing to do anything that we asked them to do. So we had a great experience with those guys.

PAUL:

The numbers are staggering. 800,000 people lining the streets of Pasadena. 27 million television viewers streaming in over 60 countries. Then float fast afterwards where 75,000 more people came to see the Mississippi float up close. But beyond the metrics, I wanted to know about the real human responses they heard after the parade, the conversations, the messages, the moments that made them think this is exactly why we did this.

KATIE:

There are countless stories in the days while we were doing float making, leading up to the parade and then actually coming home to Mississippi. Of course we promote outside of Mississippi so people don't know sometimes exactly what Visit Mississippi does or that we have a state tourism office. And I think people seeing the float and being like, ‘How did this get here? Where did this come from?’ Learning about that and seeing it on TV and hearing about how we at Vist Mississippi are promoting our state outside of it and then kind of getting to experience that. I enjoyed hearing after the parade back home how proud people were to say, ‘Yes, that's our float and that's Mississippi.’ And we have a Mississippi Blues Trail marker that was featured on the float in our city. And so that was special to me, of course, with all of the impacts that happened with visitors and potential visitors. That's why it's all why we do it, but it's always great to kind of get some local buy-in as well.

PAUL:

Rochelle also talked about the overwhelming response from Mississippians on social media.

ROCHELLE:

I'll just add to what Katie said that we were just super excited to see all the Mississippians who were just tweeting and putting on social media and just really just joining in on the excitement that we had. We had known about this for, you know, a year leading up to it. And there were a lot of people around the state that didn't have any idea that we were doing this. We couldn't have asked for better results from our home state about how they felt about us having a float in the parade.

PAUL:

So what's different this year? What did they learn from 2025 that they're bringing into 2026? Katie walked me through what we can expect to see on New Year's Day.

KATIE:

This year's float theme is Mississippi where creativity blooms all about arts and culture throughout our state, whether that's visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, and you'll see that depicted all throughout the float. We've got a great centerpiece in Kermit the Frog, and he's kind of honoring Jim Henson and his roots in Leland, Mississippi, with the Birthplace of Kermit the Frog Museum. We're excited that Charlie Worsham is going to be performing on a stage in the front that is wrapped in artwork inspired by the Walter Anderson Museum down on the coast in Ocean Springs. And we might have a Muppet Shout Out from Charlie, so stay tuned for that.

ROCHELLE:

We also manage the Mississippi Writer's Trail, so incredible…literary giants from Mississippi. We're honoring just a few of those with Jesmyn Ward, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, just to name a few.

PAUL:

Katie also mentioned the ballet dancers will see performing as a tribute to the USA International Ballet Competition. Joining Charlie as our performers will be to ballet dancers paying tribute to the USAIBC, the International Ballet Competition that we are fortunate to have every four years in Jackson here in Mississippi. This is something that people might not know about Mississippi and about Jackson. And I think it's going to be one of those things that really pleasantly surprises people. It's such a special event that we get to have in Jackson. And so we're excited to feature this through these live ballet dancers.

PAUL:

Thanks to Rochelle Hicks and Katie Coats from Visit Mississippi for telling us more about their 2025 and their soon-to-come 2026 Tournament of Roses Parade experience. Now we dance.

This year's float celebrates the arts, Mississippi's contributions to literature, music and dance. And that brings Jackson into the story in a powerful way. Every four years, Jackson becomes one of the most important cities in the international ballet world. The USA International Ballet Competition brings the planet's best young dancers here to compete, and it's one of only four such competitions in the entire world. In 2027 the competition returns to Jackson. But first, on January 1, 2026, the USAIBC will be represented on Mississippi's Rose Parade float, introducing millions of people to Jackson's dance legacy.

Mona Nicholas is the executive director of the USA International Ballet Competition. I started by asking her to give us the essentials. What is the USA IBC? Why Jackson is one of only four places in the world to host? What it's like when our city transforms into this global dance destination. Very exciting when the USA International Ballet Competition is held and it's held every four years in Jackson, Mississippi.

MONA:

And a lot of people ask why Jackson. And it's because of Thalia Mara, who our performing venue is named after, which was the city auditorium. And the City decided to name it after her because she did bring this amazing competition to Jackson. And it's held, as you mentioned, in three other places: Moscow, Varna, Bulgaria, and also Helsinki, Finland and we take turns. So in June of 2027, Jackson will host the competition once again for the 13th time. And it's going to be very special because we will celebrate our 50th anniversary.

PAUL:

The 2026 float celebrates the arts broadly, not just one art form, but the full spectrum of Mississippi's creative contributions. Ballet will be represented alongside our literary traditions and musical heritage. When I asked Mona how it feels to see the USAIBC sharing that platform with other art forms that define our state's creative legacy.

MONA:

It's amazing because we have visitors from all over the world and dancers from all over the world and they're just soaking up the culture. And Thalia Mara Hall is famous around the world. All of the dancers just say, I want to dance Jackson because they know if they just to get invited is a big feather in their cap and then to be seen on the stage and compete with all of those amazing dancers is definitely something that will add to their resume and is just an honor to be chosen because there are so many good and excellent dancers and we have to pick and it's not easy because they're all very good from almost 500 applicants.

PAUL:

Think about the scale of this 800,000 people on the streets of Pasadena and millions more watching on TV and streaming around the world. For many of those viewers, this might be their first time hearing about the USA International Ballet Competition or maybe their first time thinking about Jackson as a destination for anything. So I asked Mona what she hopes those viewers understand about Jackson's role in the dance community when they see the USA IBC represented on that float and what might surprise people about our city's connection to this art form.

MONA:

Well, I'm very excited and honored and pleased that this is happening again. We did have a float many years ago. I think at the very beginning, there was a float dedicated solely to USA International Ballet Competition. So to be amongst all the great literary figures and musicians, it's amazing because, you know, Mississippi is filled with all sorts of talent and to have an international competition and to be known all over the world for this competition, I think is huge for Mississippi. It also has a huge economic impact with $48 million it brought into our city and to our state in 2023. So we're expecting even more generation of economic development because of the 50th anniversary.

One exciting thing that we have done is we have invited all the gold medalists since it's our golden anniversary to return to the stage. And we are going to ask the gold medalists who are still performing to dance at our opening ceremony. So it will be very exciting. The timing is perfect. The Rose parade happens in January, 2026. And then just over a year later in June, 2027, the USA International Ballet Competition returns to Jackson. That means this parade appearance becomes a massive introduction, a way to plant a seed in people's minds about Jackson and what happens here.

PAUL:

I asked Mona if she's already thinking about how the Rose Parade visibility might impact the competition and whether that's attracting new audiences or sponsors or even inspiring young dancers watching from home who might want to compete here one day.

MONA:

Well, I hope that they'll immediately go to our website and look it up because they're so interested in it. But I do feel like, especially in California, we have a lot of competitors that come from California and a lot of ticket buyers that visit our state during the competition from California. So I'm hoping that everyone will be so excited about it, especially if they hear about the 50th anniversary and many famous dancers have won at our competition and have gone on to just have storied careers. I'm certainly hoping to go after not only competitors to know about this competition, but we have a dance school that runs concurrently with that, that they will also want to enroll in the dance school. And because they all go to the competition at night and they get to meet the competitors. And certainly we want ticket buyers to come and, they do from all over the United States and the world, but even more so once they see that, you know, we have all these great musicians and literary figures. It's just Mississippi. I'm just so proud because we do have such rich culture and amazing talent from our state.

PAUL:

From a couch in Mississippi to Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, Rochelle Hicks proved that inspiration turns into 800,000 people on the streets and 27 million viewers watching our state's story unfold. This year, Mississippi returns to the Rose Parade with the art as the centerpiece and Jackson's USA International Ballet Competition shares the stage with our literary and musical legacies. It's a reminder that showing up matters, that being seen on the world's biggest stage plants seeds we can't always predict and somewhere right now in Mississippi, maybe somebody's watching last year's parade footage, thinking about the story they want to tell next.

My special thanks to Rochelle Hicks, Katie Coates and Mona Nicholas for their parts in this episode. We'll have links in our show notes to their organizations and to more about the Rose Parade in 2026 at visitjackson.com/soulsessions. This podcast is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor.

Do you want to know more about all of the great things happening in Jackson? Well, you can learn that at visitjackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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